The Minister of National Defense, Ionut Mosteanu, pleaded, on Thursday, for the implementation of an administrative-territorial reform and a single payroll law in order to streamline spending.

He reiterated his belief that, in the current context, it is not appropriate to reduce the salary envelope in the Defense field.

„There will be further discussions at the coalition and Government levels and, finally, we will present the conclusions. The budgetary pressure is high, the costs of salary expenses are high, somewhere around 150 billion per year. 12 billion lei of these costs are at the Ministry of Defense. It is an important part, it is also an important part of society that works under the subordination of the Ministry of Defense: the Romanian military and, likewise, those from the entire national security system,” stated Mosteanu, during a press conference at the Victoria Palace.

According to him, the Government is trying to find solutions for decisions taken in the past.

„If we, years and years, continue with the same number of counties, the same number of institutions, the same number of Mayors throughout the country, which barely manage to cover their salary and maintenance expenses, very few manage to do this, we will not get anywhere. (…) Administrative-territorial reform is needed and, no matter how much some run away from it, this is where we will end up,” he emphasized.

The Minister of Defense specified that Poland, a country that started from „the same communist historical reality” as Romania, implemented such a reform in the 1990s.

„Poland is now, here, at a time when – since we’re still talking about defense and comparisons are being made – this year they are spending 4.7% of their GDP on defense, somewhere around 47 billion dollars. So, here, they got to this by managing their expenses and territory well, central administrations and local administrations. That’s what we have to do too,” argued Ionut Mosteanu.

He also mentioned that a single budget payroll law, initially envisaged as a milestone for 2023, would ensure „transparency”, „fairness and fair expectations” for the coming years.

Regarding the local administration package, Mosteanu added, it remains to be determined whether it will be implemented before or after the partial elections in Bucharest.

„We will see in what form this administrative package will come out and there will be a discussion in the coalition next week, together with the prime minister. We will decide whether we do it before – there are two or so weeks until the elections – whether we do it before then or after. From my point of view, it is important – and from our point of view – to have it in force at the time we build next year’s budget,” the minister said.AGERPRES